If I’m following this correctly, according to one spokesperson for the Marine Corps Band, at Monday’s inauguration Beyoncé lip-synced to the national anthem but the band accompanied her live. However, according to a second spokesperson, it was the band who were pretending to play to a pre-recorded tape while Beyoncé sang along live. So one or other of them were faking it. Or maybe both were. Or neither. I’d ask Chuck Schumer, the master of ceremonies, who was standing right behind her, but he spent the entire performance staring at her butt. If it was her butt, that is. It...

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman, and Kansas Governor Sam Brownback have all called for their states to eliminate their income tax and replace it with a sales tax over the past week. They were joined yesterday morning by North Carolina, where the Senate President Pro Tempore, Phil Berger, confirmed the legislature and the Governor, Pat McCrory, would pursue serious tax reform this session. Indeed, a senate proposal being crafted into legislation includes a repeal of North Carolina’s personal and corporate income taxes along with an expanded sales tax. If North Carolina, Louisiana, and Nebraska are successful in...

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois fell to the bottom of all 50 states in the rankings of a major credit ratings agency Friday following the failure of Gov. Pat Quinn and lawmakers to fix the state’s hemorrhaging pension system during this month’s lame-duck session. Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service downgraded Illinois in what is the latest fallout over the $96.8 billion debt to five state pension systems. The New York rating firm’s ranking signaled taxpayers may pay tens of millions of dollars more in interest when the state borrows money for roads and other projects. “It’s absolutely bad news for taxpayers,” said...

Farmer Mark Schroeder of Elgin, Minn., knew something was seriously wrong when he heard a noise from his new windmill that sounded like a helicopter landing on the roof of his house. "You could hear the noise 2 or 3 miles away," he said. The windmill shook furiously atop its 160-foot tower. Black smoke billowed from the control unit. Schroeder said he tried shutting off the power, but the windmill's three 25-foot-long blades continued spinning furiously. One of the 500-pound blades eventually sheared off and flew about 100 yards into a field, bringing Schroeder's dream of energy independence crashing to...

01/23/13 From HuffPo: Dead weight? A business owner in Utah has become the latest employer to blame President Obama's health care reform bill for layoffs and has doubled down on his public disdain for the current administration by admitting he singled out Obama supporters. Terry Lee, owner of Cedar City-based Terry Lee Forensics, told the Salt Lake Tribune that he was so impressed by a Vernal, Utah, smoothie bar's policy of asking liberal patrons to pay more, that he, too, took action to recoup losses he said were incurred by Obamacare. George Burnett, owner of I Love Drilling Smoothie &...

It's the common talking point from left leaning media and gun control advocates: NRA leaders are out of touch with NRA members and the organization is disagreement over top gun control issues. Turns out, the exact opposite is true. The National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action conducted a national scientific poll of NRA members this week and found the vast majority are on the same page regarding a wide range of issues, in particular when it comes to new gun control measures and how to prevent mass shootings. One-thousand members were randomly selected for the poll. The NRA is...

During a city council meeting in Oak Harbor, WA a veteran who served in, Afghanistan speaks spontaneously in favor of the 2nd Amendment and causes a liberal whiner on the council to get up and leave when he is not allowed to violate his oath of office.

Here's the Cambridge dictionary definition for "oasis": a calm, pleasant place in the middle of somewhere busy and unpleasant. I believe President Obama would approve of the word "oasis" to describe the proper environment for a woman wanting to end the life of her baby; after all, who would want to be punished with such a thing? CNN acknowledged the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision by featuring Amy Hagstrom [where's my hyphen?] Miller, CEO of Whole Woman's Health, a company operating six abortion clinics in Texas--a very pro-life state and home of the Roe v. Wade case....

When she heard that women would be allowed to serve on the frontlines of battle, former Camp San Luis Obispo garrison commander Lt. Col. Nicole Balliet’s first reaction was, “Well, it’s about time!” The Atascadero native then had to better understand the announcement and its implications. “It’s very overwhelming,” she said of the decision. “It’s a huge validation for all the hard work women have done serving in combat for the past several decades.” The official announcement came after initial reports Wednesday of the Pentagon’s reversal of the 1994 ban on women serving in small frontline combat units. In his...

On Friday, the New York Times Television section highlighted tonight's Sean Hannity one-hour special “Boomtown,” a program featuring Government Accountability Institute President and Co-founder Peter Schweizer and Breitbart News Executive Chairman and Government Accountability Co-founder Stephen K. Bannon. 9 P.M. (Fox News) BOOMTOWN: WASHINGTON, THE IMPERIAL CITY In this edition of “Hannity,” the host, Sean Hannity; Peter Schweizer, the president and co-founder of the Government Accountability Institute; and Stephen K. Bannon, the executive chairman of Breitbart News and co-founder of the Government Accountability Institute, investigate what they call crony capitalism among the city’s power elite and the tactics used by...

With little discussion or fanfare, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta lifted the ban on women in combat that has been in effect for as long as there has been a U.S. military. Feminists and some women serving in the military are applauding the move as a victory for equal rights. They claim that justice requires nothing short of opening all positions to females, regardless of the consequences to combat effectiveness, unit cohesion, or military readiness, factors whose importance they minimize in any event. What is perhaps most striking about Secretary Panetta's action is that it reverses the combat exclusion policy that...

Documents from an inspector general’s probe last June allege that a top-level USAID official interfered with an investigation of possible contract rigging by the foreign-aid agency’s general counsel. The alleged obstruction occurred while the inspector general’s office was investigating whether former USAID general counsel Lisa Gomer had worked with former chief financial officer David Ostermeyer to design a contract that would go to Ostermeyer after he retired. The inspector general’s office said in an internal memo that Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg, who ranks No. 2 at the U.S. Agency for International Development, told investigators that their efforts to gather information...

Is Your Stocks Portfolio Ready for What’s Going to Happen? Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2013Jan 25, 2013 - 09:13 AM By: InvestmentContrarian Sasha Cekerevac writes: As corporate earnings season continues for S&P 500 companies, it is becoming quite evident that revenue growth is lacking across many sectors of the economy. However, we are continuing to see growth in corporate earnings per share. How is this possible? One method is through share buybacks. S&P 500 corporations, which are generating very high levels of cash, are buying back shares and reducing the number outstanding, which increases the corporate earnings-per-share level. From April...

Random checks happen at stations across country. Passengers catching the 9:30 a.m. Amtrak train from Austin to Dallas were met with an unexpected surprise when they got to the station. Transportation Security Administration agents, Austin police officers, and the Department of Homeland Security were all waiting for them. ... Random security checks are voluntary ... The random check takes about 10-15 minutes and happens hundreds of times a day at bus, train, and subway stations across the country.

Thanks to beefrank for making me aware of these new Glock commercials. The first is funny, while the second is unnerving and should, I think, be watched by every parent in America. Wrong Diner - Extended Version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsVCHE7ayPE Wrong Girl - Extended Version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2gCFOtaZPo

Senators Nearing Agreement On Broad Immigration Reform Proposal By Rosalind S. Helderman and David Nakamura January 25 A working group of senators from both parties is nearing agreement on broad principles for overhauling the nation’s immigration laws, representing the most substantive bipartisan effort toward comprehensive legislation in years. The six members have met quietly since the November election, most recently on Wednesday. Congressional aides stressed there is not yet final agreement, but they have eyed next Friday as a target date for a possible public announcement. The talks mark the most in-depth negotiations involving members of both parties since a...

President Obama has called for stricter federal gun laws to combat recent shooting rampages, but a review of recent state laws by The Washington Times shows no discernible correlation between stricter rules and lower gun-crime rates in the states. States that ranked high in terms of making records available to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System also tended to have tighter gun laws — but their gun-crime rates ranged widely. The same was true for states that ranked poorly on disclosure and were deemed to have much less stringent gun-possession laws. For example, New York, even before it approved...

RALEIGH — Efforts are under way to make North Carolina the first state since Alaska in 1980 to eliminate taxes on total personal income. Competing proposals also would launch a pro-growth tax reform renaissance that would scrap corporate income taxes that discourage capital investment and savings. The John Locke Foundation introduced a plan Wednesday including those elements, along with a repeal of estate taxes and the retail sales tax at the state level. Researchers at the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan Washington, D.C-based tax research group, are among those lauding the JLF plan. “The whole point is economic growth. It’s not...